Okay, so I’m typing this very late at night so bear with me if I make spelling mistakes or my thoughts sound scrambled.

At any rate, the callback to All Quiet within the last paragraph of Not So Quiet is undeniable and I really wanted to comment on it. Here’s a side by side comparison:

“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” (All Quiet)

“Her soul died under a radiant silver moon in the spring of 1918 on the
side of a blood-spattered trench. Around her lay the mangled dead and the
dying. Her body was untouched, her heart beat calmly, the blood coursed as
ever through her veins. But looking deep into those emotionless eyes one
wondered if they had suffered much before the soul had left them. Her face
held an expression of resignation, as though she had ceased to hope that the
end might come.” (Not So Quiet)

The subtle differences are striking. For Paul, death is a release. It is the end, and he no longer has to suffer. For Nellie, the war ending means nothing to her because she still has to deal with the trauma inflicted by it. Every day means a new battle for her. Paul does not appear to have suffered. Nellie does, and will continue to do so as long as she is alive. Paul is calm, Nellie resigned. To be honest, I feel like we leave Nellie with where we start with Paul–resigned and unable to think beyond the war. Although I didn’t like this book as much as I liked All Quiet, I did like this sort of full circle callback to All Quiet.

The ending of Not So Quiet also reminds me of the very first paragraph in All Quiet, mentioning how it’s about men who even though they escaped shells and bombs were still destroyed by the war. And that’s how Not So Quiet ends–Nellie surrounded by death caused by bombardment. She makes it out, yes, but there is still irreparable damage within her.